114 EXCAVATIONS AT MAUMBURY RINGS. 



fine silt of mixed mould and rubble, was observed and 

 plotted ; but, as no relics or pottery were found, no definite 

 evidence of date was obtained. 



Nothing was obtained from the body of the bank except a 

 few bones of young pig (Sus scrofa) near the top, and an 

 antler pick (No. 395), with the handle-end incomplete, found in 

 an important position 1ft. above the old turf line. It is a 

 small shed antler of red-deer with the brow-tine fairly com- 

 plete, and the bez- and trez-tines cut down as stumps. The 

 pick is smooth and bears signs of considerable wear, and is of 

 precisely the same type as those found in the prehistoric shafts. 



We obtained no conclusive evidence of the date of the 

 Great Bank ; but the fact that few remains were found here 

 and in the similar digging on the N.N.W. (Cutting XXXII.), 

 and that nothing of Roman date was found in either of these 

 cuttings, points to the probability that the earthwork is 

 prehistoric and contemporaneous with the accompanying 

 shafts. 



V. CUTTING XXXI. (PLATE I.). 



Cutting XXXI. was a quadrilateral area (seen on left-hand 

 side, Plate II.), the sides measuring from 20ft. to 23* 75ft. in 

 length. Its N.W. corner abutted against the S.E. margin of 

 Cutting II. Extension. The digging revealed the usual 

 features, viz., the material forming the Civil War terrace 

 resting upon an old surface which covered the Roman and 

 earlier work, the chalk wall of the arena, and the inner and 

 outer trenches with the solid gangway between. On the 

 S.W. the outline of a large shaft (or shafts ?), bearing the 

 number XVII., came to light. In the rubble filling at the 

 mouth no prehistoric remains were found, but we examined the 

 material no deeper than 8- 15ft. below the surface of the turf. 



The E. margin of the pit was practically in the same position 

 as the inner edge of the inner trench. Square post-holes 

 were revealed in two places on the margin of the shaft, one 

 filling the centre of a basin-shaped cavity in the solid chalk. 



